


The Small Things

by Rikkichi



Category: Dragon Age II, Guild Wars 2 (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Reincarnation, Crossover, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-01
Updated: 2017-04-01
Packaged: 2018-10-13 16:29:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,771
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10517520
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rikkichi/pseuds/Rikkichi
Summary: He gave up everything to save the world. All he wants in return is the chance to see his lover again, even if that means waiting a thousand lifetimes for their paths to cross once more.





	

**Author's Note:**

> WARNING: this fic contains spoilers for the Heart of Thorns expansion to Guild Wars 2.

He was tired.

Five elder dragons have fallen to the armies that have rallied around him and his allies. Five elder dragons, five sets of dragon champions, five armies of dragonspawn. And after five-times-two years of fighting, the Commander was tired. He felt it deep in his bones, in his veins. Barely ten years old, and already he felt like he had lived a lifetime.

His body ached for rest, but he knew he could not stop. There was one more elder dragon to go, one more war to win, and then he could be done.

"This could be the end of us, you know. We live because of the elder dragons' magic. Who is to say that we will keep living once that magic is gone?"

An enemy, turned friend, turned lover, turned most loyal ally he could possibly ask for. The Commander trusted him with everything, and he trusted that those words came from good intentions. Even if all they did was make his stomach churn.

"I know, Canach. Trust me, I know."

Canach grunted in reply, but left it at that. They rarely needed to speak to each other, they understood without words. 

The Commander took Canach's hand and squeezed it, which earned him a squeeze in reply. A final bit of endearment, one last 'I love you' before they took to the battlefield. Regardless of what fate held for them, they would face it together.

\---

When he faced the Six, he was alone. Had he fallen in battle? It was possible. He remembered striking the final blow against the dragon, ending the foul beast's life and ridding the world of the plague of the elder dragons, but he was injured when he had done it. Maybe he had succumbed to his injuries, or maybe all Sylvari had died when the dragons did.

The 'how' mattered little, he decided. What mattered was that he was dead, and there were six Gods standing in front of him. Quite a feat, considering he didn't believe in the Six in the first place.

"You have done the world a great service," one of them said. Melandru, maybe? The Commander wasn't sure, the only one he clearly recognized was Grenth, and that was because of his ties to death magic. 

Another of the Six spoke: "Normally we do not bestow gifts on nonbelievers, but we felt that this was the time to make an exception."

"Admittedly, it is difficult to keep being a nonbeliever when you see the Gods for yourself," the Commander said with a chuckle. It earned no laughter from any of the Gods before him, though.

Instead, an awkward silence continued on, until the Commander spoke again. "So you mean to say that I can ask for anything? Anything at all?"

"Yes, within reason," Grenth said, "There are rules that must be minded, but we can fulfill most requests."

That was…pretty powerful, actually. The first thought that jumped to mind was to wish himself back to life. He was only ten, after all. Even if he translated that into human years, he would be under thirty. He still had many years of life ahead of him.

But no, that would be selfish. If he could wish someone to life, then it should be one of his friends that had fallen. Maybe Trahearne, or Eir, or even Canach if he was dead too. He couldn't bear the thought of coming back to life only to find out that his love was gone.

That was a good question as well. "Before I decide, may I ask a question?"

All of the Six nodded, so the Commander continued. "I know of the different stories of the afterlife. I know what the humans believe, and the Charr, and the Norn, and the Asura. I know what even many of the other races of Tyria believe in. But what happens to a Sylvari, when they die? What happens to their soul?"

It was Grenth, the expert on death, who answered. "Sylvari come from the Jungle Dragon. They were created from nothingness, and to nothingness they return."

"Oh." It made sense, he figured. It was presumptuous of him to assume that the Sylvari would get a life after death, when they weren't even made by the Gods in the first place. But even though it made sense, his chest still ached. To have nothing to look forward to, to just cease to exist…

It was wrong. As much as he wanted to be selfish, to wish that he and Canach could be together again, he knew he couldn't do it. The Sylvari hadn't been around for long, but they had spent that entire time suffering. They deserved better than that.

"Then I want to change that," the Commander said, looking up at the Six with a firm gaze, "I want all Sylvari to have souls that continue to exist once they have died. Whatever fate there is for the other races of Tyria- be it an afterlife, being reborn, existing as a ghost, what have you- I want the Sylvari to have that too."

It was too late for the ones who had already passed, but maybe it would be enough for the ones who were still alive.

The Six looked to each other, conferring without speaking. Finally they all looked down on the Commander again, each holding out a hand towards him. One of them spoke once more as the magic began to flow from their hands. "Your request will be granted. However, in order to do this, the Sylvari cannot continue as they are now. The dragon's magic taints them, and prevents us from keeping their souls here. So, they must be changed."

The Commander felt his entire body go burning hot, but not in an uncomfortable way. It was like laying in a pool of sunlight mid-afternoon, when naps claimed even the most steadfast of warriors. He looked down at his arms and saw that he was changing. Vines turned to flesh, leaves turned to hair, green to pale. And though he couldn't see it happening, he could feel the rest of his body changing too. He was becoming less of a plant and more of a flesh-and-blood being, something more like the other races of Tyria.

And as his mind started to go fuzzy and the Six faded from his vision, he was struck by one final thought.

Not Sylvari.

_Elvhen._

\---

He lost track of how many eons passed. Empires rose and fell, continents were shaped and re-shaped, entire races of people died out and were born from the Gods. The Gods themselves even changed a few times, though over time he came to understand that 'Gods' were little more than everyday people who had gained enough power to shape the world. The Six were just the first of many sets of Gods like that. Then came the Elvhen Gods, and the Maker, and who knows what other Gods he had forgotten in there somewhere. His memory wasn't really that great, and it was hard to keep track of what happened when.

He didn't know why he remembered, to be honest. Nobody else seemed to remember their past lives. He even tried to talk about it with people he knew he had met before, but he had always been met with blank stares at best or accusations of being a demon at worst. More than one he had been killed for it. He had since learned to not question it, and instead think of it as part of his gift from the Six, part of what made him special.

His first life as the Commander was always clear in his mind. That was the time 'before', so it made sense to him that he would remember it well. The thousand or so lives that had come after that were largely a blur though. He would remember bits and pieces of things: time adventuring as a dwarf, time spent in a Circle tower, time spent as a human king, as a poor city elf, and as everything in-between. He was glad it was just bits and pieces, though. He doubted he would be able to handle the full memories of a thousand lives.

Especially since those thousands of lives had not yet returned him to his first love.

He had fallen in love many times across many lives, and he had started many families as well. But none of them compared to what he had felt for Canach, nor did it help with the worry that he had been too late, that Canach had died before him and thus had not been brought into the cycle of reincarnation. Each life that passed made that dread grow, and eventually he resigned himself to the reality that he would never see Canach again.

This life wasn't so bad, comparatively. Losing his father and sister had been rough, but he still had a mother and brother, and he had many friends he could rely on. And he was handsome, too. He had ended up looking horse-faced more than once, so he was glad that he had good looks this time around. It might have been a bit vain of him, but sometimes you had to appreciate the small things.

Small things like a chance meeting while working to recover some stolen goods.

Small things like a breath catching in his throat, his heart pounding a mile a minute. 

Small things like the way he moved when he spoke, and the way he smiled when he was flirted with.

Small things like seeing his face and knowing, just _knowing_ that he was the one. That after all those years, all those lives, he finally found what he had been searching for.

"Fenris." 

"Yes, Hawke?"

They were different names, but the souls were the same. And as difficult as it was, building up trust without explaining who he was and how he knew what he did, he would endure. While he remembered his past lives, his love did not, an unfortunate result of the horrors that had been done to him. Spouting off tales of past lives and how they had been together before would no doubt chase Fenris off. So he would have to do things differently.

He held up the wine bottle for Fenris to see. "Care for another reading lesson?"

Fenris gave a small, amused huff at that. "Drinking makes it harder to read, you know."

"But it makes things so much more interesting."

This was fine. Hawke could do this.

They fell in love once before, so they could do it again.

**Author's Note:**

> I will admit, the entire reason I wrote this is because Fenris and Canach are way too much alike. The thought of one being the reincarnation of the other is an amusing one to me.


End file.
